Day 209 - Birdland

calling anna

You recall how yesterday I had a strong sense of Summertime, and was struck by the sudden abundance of butterfly?  Well today we went to a whole new level - this time with birds!

Anna was working from home today, and found that the garden was simply full of birds all day.

This green woodpecker was one of many highlights, calling in her inimitable, chattering laughter until Anna went out to find her on the lawn and caught this fabulous shot.

All around, a plethora of our feathered friends (including many new fledglings) were rioting through the fields, hedgerows, trees and our garden.

Apparently starlings have just fledged and there was a small flock of up to 50 or so of them, skittering about excitedly.

This fledgling was caught mid shakedown...

ruffled feathers

...whilst others watched from on top of the chimney stack:

cheap seats

At one point, something spooked them and they all burst out of the hedgerow, just as swallows overhead suddenly span into chaos...I think our local sparrowhawk buzzed along the hedgerow...and probably caught something, if we're going to be honest about it. 

A pile of young downy feathers outside my window shows that some at least will be predated upon by raptor, raven, fox, cat, or one of many opportunistic creatures that might be passing by...this victim is a starling, we think, but the body is gone so we're not sure.

crime scene

Our mother blackbird was around of course, feeling mighty proud of herself:

tail and head in the air

Whilst the newly fledged young (yay) kept nervously to the hedgerow:

tail and head down

A group of tree sparrow romped noisily back and forth along the hedgerow, whilst a dozen swallow wheeled and whirled overhead. 

Skylark were singing high in the sky above the wheat field, and chaffinch would flit by now and then, with woodpigeon and dove passing back and forth constantly.

Baby blue tits are tiny, and super cute, like little fluffy yellow golf balls:

orville?!

As if all this wasn't enough, a rare (around these parts) red kite came by, and Anna managed to catch a few lovely, if distant shots:

awesome!

Here's a nice profile from below, showing his curiously tatty tail:

big boy

When I got home in the early evening, we took Jazz for his usual constitutional down the lane, when Anna noticed the green woodpecker's cackling call from the field the other side of the hedgerow...rushing to the gate to get a view of the field, we couldn't see it anywhere.

Green woodpeckers spend much of their time on the ground, and so are very hard to spot.

To our utter delight, as we stood at the gate watching, two of them flew up and landed on the top of the roof of the barn conversion across the field:

offspring and mum

Whilst a long way away, this still makes for a lovely photo of mother (on the right) and offspring...

To top off the most amazing days bird viewing, all within 50m of home, Anna used her super raptor spotting skills and pointed this tree out to me, away over the meadow:

tall and elegant

Maybe not all that interesting at first glance, but look closer, and see if you can spot this fine fellow perched in the branches just left of centre:

our friend the buzzard

And still it wasn't over, as we came across more lovely butterflies:

some butterflies...

I'm hoping someone might come along again and identify these (ahem...anna...cough)...

some other butterfly

And one last little beauty to round off one of the most prolific and active wildlife days we've seen for a long time...

Happy summer, everyone!

B-)

Day 208 - Summertime

umm, a butterfly?

Having met so many caterpillars in recent weeks, the season appears to have turned...and the butterflies are coming out in force.

Wandering down the lane tonight, one of the first really warm, summery evenings we've had, I was ruing a missed opportunity a couple of days ago.  I'd got the snail photo early in the morning, so didn't bother taking the camera on our evening stroll.   

Typically, we were then treated to a brilliant display of a pair of crows pestering and generally annoying a large buzzard.   This has been a common sight over recent months, but rarely so close and never when I've been free to take a photo. 

As it was, if I'd had the camera in my hand as I usually do these days, I would have had a great chance of getting an interesting action shot.

But then we started to notice the butterflies...

red admiral

We soon realised they were all out...red admirals sunning themselves on broad bramble leaves, others collecting nectar from flowers, or courting, as with this white (there were several of these, circling and spinning around each other in the warm, hazy sunlght).  

white, of some description

I've no idea what this last one is, and unfortunately I haven't got the time or energy to go researching...

erm, a brown?

Perhaps one of you friendly readers might chip in, in the comments section below?

Go on, you know you want to! ;-)

Anyway, I was struck by how the presence of so many butterflies within a few metres of each other really brought home the feeling that Summer is here...and we should all spend more time basking, and flitting, and flirting...spend more time living, and less time working!

After all, we all know that Winter is Coming, a time for struggle and work and huddling indoors...

So we should make the most of this season, for all the warmth and life that it brings, and be thankful that we're here to live through it.

:-)

Day 207 - Troublemaker

lookout point

This little lady has been the cause of much trouble around here...in fact, such is her significance, I think she's featured on my blog before!

The Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) makes it a criminal offence to disturb a nesting bird. 

This protection stands regardless of whether the bird is nest building, or the nest contains eggs or young dependent fledglings.

In one of the hedges between our cottage and next door, a pair of blackbirds have been nesting for some weeks...for the last two or three weeks, they have been diligently feeding their young on juicy fat worms and other insects that they find around the garden. 

Our garden makes for a wonderful food rich territory for them, and we believe this is their second brood this year. 

One drawback, however, is the Killer Queen, Loz.  At the weekend, as Queenie was hunting voles around the decking, something in the hedge caught her attention. 

The blackbird nest is low in the hedge, maybe only 1m above the ground, although the hedge is so dense that the nest is not easily visible - I haven't managed to spot it yet. 

Anyway I found Loz totally focussed on the hedge in the approximate vicinity of the nest, in full on targeting mode.

As I shooed her away, she hardly even noticed me, instead treating me like some kind of roadblock and merely adjusting her position without losing focus on the nest at all.

We had to shut her indoors (much to her chagrin) for 48 hours, before she seemed to forget about the nest when let out under our supervision. 

The blackbird has a variety of strategies for defending itself against predators such as Loz, of which the Prime Directive is:

Never let the predator discover the location of the nest.

The blackbird achieves this by only entering the nest when they're sure they are unobserved...if a cat is around they will sit on the lawn in full view, just a few feet away, and wait for the cat to pay them some attention...at which point they'll take off directly away from the nest.   This both draws the predator away (both physically and psychologically), and as a side bonus, offers their mate a chance, quietly and unnoticed, to enter the nest.

To some extent they are testing the predator, to see whether it is in hunting mode, such that they can adjust their tactics appropriately.

For pure prey animals, they are remarkably brave where their young are concerned.

Anyway, as I briefly mentioned in an earlier post, we had to interrupt the drain digging operation in our garden because the new underground pipes were to be routed directly below the nest.

For several days now works have been halted (although in fairness, the nest is not the only reason), and we are watching and waiting to see what develops with the nest. 

I should note that we're not keen to protect the bird because it's illegal, but simply because it's morally right - the Law is simply a convenient way of forcing the uncompromising and uncaring drainage workers to cede to our personal standpoint. ;-)

A couple of days ago, our neighbour claimed that the young had fledged...but since then we've seen the mother and father blackbirds go back to the nest, and they're still making the soft clucking sound they make to reassure their young...so they don't seem to have fledged just yet.

Somewhat worryingly, this morning I saw the mother blackbird in the photo above enter the nest with a beak full of dry grass...nesting material!

We're hoping this simply means they're making a few running repairs...and not that they're starting Round Three!

I'll keep both my eye on them, and you posted...

:-)

Day 206 - Snail on Snail

facetime

Well, what a sight to be greeted with, stepping out of your door first thing in the morning!

This pair of amorous lovesnails were going at it hammer and tongs...or should I say horns and tongues?!  Do they even have tongues?  At this point, I'm oddly reluctant to go off researching the intricacies and intimacies of snail physiology!

I suppose it's feasible that they're fighting - this could be some brutal, slow-mo' territorial battle to the death...the one on the left has the other one locked in a vicious, suffocating face-grip...

But then if I'm going to anthropomorphise, I might as well assume something less violent...they're sucking each others faces like teenagers at the school disco?

...um no, that's not really working for me either.

Perhaps they're good mates coming home after a heavy night on the town, intoxicated on the juicy leaves they've been nibbling all night...one is draped around the others shoulders, drunkenly slurring, "I love you mate, you're my besht mate ever...ever, yeah man..."?

Or maybe they're seasoned lovers, basking in the afterglow, cuddling peacefully and chatting about how they should probably get up and go about their day...

I suppose it could simply be the gastropod equivalent of a car crash...one of them changed lanes without using the appropriate horn signals, leading directly to this pile-up...

Then again, it could be the long awaited TPGM (terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc) WWF (World Wrestling Federation) match up between Trailer Snail (he'll slime you up!) and The Mighty Mollusc (he's stuck on you!).

(they're all a fix, you know, sportainment or whatever they call it...maybe they don't call it that...I might have just made that up)

Anyway, after careful consideration, I think I'm going to go with the afterglow image...that's the most peaceful of the options.


Speaking of which, a couple of people who saw my blog post from last night commented that I looked like a bit of a hooligan, and then looked at me a tad cautiously...

Somewhat amusingly, they seem to have seen that photo, which was obviously staged entirely for effect, and wondered whether that's actually the real me...

The mind boggles!

On the one hand, it's a little disturbing that they seem to think I could be like that...but on the other, I guess it speaks to my impressive acting (or at least, posing) skills!

I wonder what else I could convince people of with my acting (Gary)?

(bonus points for spotting the reference)

B-)

Day 205 - Overuse Injury

'ave it

I suppose it was inevitable that my penchant for tempting fate would eventually come back to bite (or in this case tweak) me.

I do believe that there's a living consciousness that's bigger and more potent than us puny humans.  I won't call it god as that would put all sorts of preconceptions into your mind, all of which would be built on baseless assumptions and your own conditioning.  

One of these preconceptions would be the idea that it might for some unfathomable reason be interested in me, or my life, or any of us humans (or any life on earth)...moreover, that it would wish to interfere, somehow, perhaps rewarding me for behaving in a specific way, or more often punishing me for not behaving in a specific way. 

If god was all powerful, wouldn't he have made us incapable of "sin"?  Wouldn't he have just not created "sin" in the first place?  Wouldn't he have made a perfect world populated with perfect beings, if that's what he wanted of us?

It seems to me that he's either rigged the game against us (in which case he's a bit mean), or he just made a bit of a mess of it (in which case he's not all that omni-anything)...or he doesn't mind what we do, hence bestowing us with free will and all that jazz (in which case he seems kinda cool and creative).

Anyway, maybe this consciousness was involved in putting together the fundamental laws that make up The 'Verse, although the established and emergent laws of physics seem to be on top of that particular little puzzle all on their own.

Perhaps more likely it's just another level of consciousness, an order (orders) of magnitude greater than ours, and virtually inconceivable to our limited capacity brain and mind systems...and no more interested in us that we are in bacteria.

Or (and this is the answer I lean towards) maybe it's simply the sum of all consciousness in the Universe - which self evidently exists (somewhat helpfully, via the laws of logic).  

In any case, why would this consciousness interfere in my life large, obvious ways, and what would be the mechanism of this? 

I like to demonstrate my faith(!) in this model of The 'Verse by flying in its face - daring it to interfere and punish me for my ignorance. 

My team at work hate it when I trip out the Q word, as in, "It all seems nice and quiet today, doesn't it?"...they are convinced that this will invoke an immediate tsunami of support calls - despite the fact that it never does. 

Several times, earlier this year, I mentioned to a variety of climbing friends and partners that the niggly injury phase of my climbing development appeared to be over...I just don't seem to get all the annoying little tweaks and tears, sprains and strains, bumps and bruises that used to be permanently in residence, irritating fingers, feet, shoulders, hips, elbows - pretty much anywhere there's a joint!

Then a few weeks ago (actually a month ago today), fate stopped by to slap me around a bit...

I was on a reasonably easy bouldering problem at the indoor wall, early in the session, when my cold hands popped off a hold...and immediately knew I'd properly hurt something...

Two or three of the main fingers on my right hand have been stiff and sore since...I think I've got some kind of minor soft tissue injury, maybe between the A2 and A3 pulley system on my middle finger. 

Over 4 weeks later, and they're not appreciably any better...it doesn't hurt, most of the time, although it seems a little swollen and it takes a while in the morning before my fingers start to work properly. 

Curiously, I can still play the guitar with no problem (other than that I'm just generally a bit rubbish these days).

I can still climb, too, and therein lies the rub - should I be resting it or working through the injury?

It only really bothers me in case it impacts my climbing...but I've climbed several times, including another hard bouldering session, and it's ok once I warm up - it doesn't really hurt when I'm on the wall or rock...

...but then it's stiff the next day, and no better...so should I rest?  Or not rest, given that it's getting neither better nor worse for being climbed on?

I'm fairly sure I know the answer to that one - it essentially boils down to a simple question:

To climb, or not to climb?

Virtually every time I find myself faced with this question, I end up siding with DMM:

Climb now, work later.

A motto for life, if ever there was one!

B-)

Day 204 - Birthday Boy

distinguished old gentledog

The 6th of July, 2014 marks a significant milestone for our JazzyBoy...he is 13 years old today!

The average life expectancy of a Labrador Retriever is 11.5 years, which is the labrador equivalent of around 67 human years.  13 years is around 80 years old...he's well and truly in the geriatric age bracket!

Of course, his brother (and litter mate) Bluez made it to 12.5 years, or about 77, so Jazz is doing well.

That said, if he was human, he'd have a Zimmer frame, a walking stick, maybe one of those chairs that helps you stand up, and probably a Stanna Stairlift...being canine, the NHS doesn't provide those things - instead he has to make use of the Tony Stairlift, as I carry him up and down each night and morning.

He is showing signs of wear nowadays.  For instance, he's increasingly grey around the muzzle these days, and the white hairs are appearing around his eyes:

what's happening?

But he can still look cute with it!

what?

I know, it's impossible to get the exposure right on a black dog - Jazz is under exposed, the background is over exposed...still haven't worked out how to deal with that.

He can still look young, interested and alert though:

did you say chicken? cheese? chips?

Ears up in this way usually indicate that he thinks there might be some food in the offing...

But he can also look like an old fellow, and with his eyesight fading considerably of late, he now needs glasses:

are these supposed to help?

They do give him that distinguished old gentle-dog look though, don't you think?

I presume I'm getting a treat for this?

Happy Birthday, my old boy Jazzer - here's to another few doggy years, at least.

And thanks for being my friend for so long...see me later for bonus treats and fuss!

I love you, JazzyBoy...

:-)

Day 203 - Bridge Over Troubled Water

ease your mind

Lovely day out in the Peak District today where, amongst other things, we came across this lovely little bridge at the head of the Burbage Valley.

We set off from home in rain, but hoping that the forecast of clearing skies would be correct...as we neared the Peak, it looked dubious for a while, but as we arrived and parked up the sun was shining, and that set the tone for the day.

The valley was looking vibrant in the sunshine, with the bracken tall, green and lush.

beautiful burbage

We mostly just bouldered along the bottom of the crag, even though I was carrying full rack and rope all the way...both Anna and I had a couple of good successes, which I won't bore you with...except I will post this photo of Anna to prove we were there, and climbing:

Anna standing on nothing

On the way back, we encountered this fine, furry fellow:

dougal?

He's an Oak Eggar caterpillar, and will be a large moth once he metamorphoses...

Here's a full profile:

not dougal

He's a interesting little chap, and one of the most interesting things about him is his size...you don't think he looks so big?  

Check this out:

finger size

He's more or less the length and thickness of Anna's forefinger!

Funnily enough, the last time we came across one of these was when we were climbing on the Pembrokeshire coast last summer...do they like the rock too?

I think they'll climb better than me...insects always do, thanks to their tiny size.

When I was climbing the steep slab that Anna is on above (coincidentally known as Tiny Slab), precariously balanced on the tips of my toes and no hand holds, struggling (and completely failing) to get any upward motion, I noticed a tiny ant a few inches in front of my face, casually and effortlessly jogging up the wall...

I don't think he was mocking me, but he could quite reasonably have been...

B-/

Day 202 - Eating Crow

breakfast time

Not the best photo today, but I have got you a nice video clip to go with it!

Well, to be honest, the photo is a clip from he video..but it fits the rules - it was taken just before 5.30 this morning, on a trailcam that I set up.

In the bottom right of the picture, you can just about make out the swollen, lifeless body of the pregnant vole that I left out as bait, and which the crow is homing in on.

I'm fairly sure this is a crow - to me, it looks tiny compared to last night's hefty beast...of course, Anna disagrees, and thinks they're both crows...

Anywhere, here's a brief clip from the wildlife camera:



I did say it was brief!

And this is Friday night, and as we now know, Friday night is short post night...

So I'll bid you a warm night night.

Night night!

B-)

Day 201 - Identity Crisis

into the night

This evening, all my photo's are chronologically contrary...starting with this atmospheric shot of a skittish corvid fleeing the scene of an unsuccessful scavenge...

As Anna and I were idly chatting, and I was sorting photo's for this blog, there was a loud (yet frustratingly inconclusive) croak from the garden.   

Half an hour earlier (continuing the reverse chronology), I'd noticed a distinctly distasteful smell coming from under my desk, and realised that our little vole friend that Loz released into the lounge, only to lose it under my desk a couple of days ago, must have died under there.  

I dug a few things out of the way, and soon found a large female bank vole amongst the usual behind-the-desk detritus...she was fat, pregnant, and very, very dead.

I took her out and left her carcass on the patio, remarking to Anna that it would make a welcome meal for a raven or crow. 

So when we heard the croak a little while later, we immediately realised that the vole had already been discovered...as I jumped up quickly and grabbed the camera, I could see the big black bird out on the lawn, and grabbed a quick snap through the window:

craven

With an ambiguous croak, we can't reach consensus over whether this is a crow or a raven...the jury is still out. 

I went to the front door, but before I got there, he spooked and flew into the tree next door.  I got to the door and saw that Loz was out on the patio, and it was probably her that was deterring him, being only a few feet away from the stinky dead vole. 

I stepped outside and he immediately took his leave, which was when I grabbed the main photo of the day.   You can't identify the bird clearly, but it's a lovely silhouette against an interesting sky, and nicely framed by the foliage. 

Anyway, I then got the vole and put it in the open on the patio, and I've left the trailcam on video mode a few feet away...we'll see who's the bravest, who gets to claim the nutritious prize...

I'll let you know!


Earlier, whilst walking Jazz down the lane, we came across this furry little fellow:

punk 'pilar

Unfortunately I didn't get any brilliant shots - the aperture was so wide that I didn't get all of him in focus...even when I narrowed it as far as possible, there was still a marked narrowness of depth of field.   I guess this is due to taking the photo with a long focal length at a very near distance - I was on full zoom from about 4 feet away (lying on my belly on the road!), when I took this. 

So I will try to learn from that...

But in any case, he is an interesting lil' 'pilar...and neatly bringing to an end my recent lack of confirmed identification streak, he is pleasingly distinct...

When he grows up he's going to be a beautiful Peacock butterfly!

B-)

Day 200 - Devastation

senseless destruction

Kind of a sad day for my bicentennial post...our lovely garden is being completely devastated by some inept builders.

It's a long story, and I'm too angry and upset to elucidate too much...

But the long and short of it is that after much wrangling over constantly blocked drains, our agents commissioned a bunch of cowboy farm workers to completely replace our drainage system and septic tank. 

Coupled with the most incompetent agent you'd (n)ever wish to meet, this has been, basically, disastrous.

They chopped trees down, and they've knocked them down, as in the sad case above...they've broken paving slabs everywhere, and they've broken wooden planking borders along our paths. 

They've destroyed at least a couple of birds nest, and we've had an almighty tussle with them today trying to insist that they don't just tunnel under a nest where our local blackbirds are currently feeding a young brood...only the threat of criminal charges seemed to stop them. 

They've utterly ruined the lawn by leaving deep grooved digger tracks over it, where they haven't just scuffed, scraped and dug it up otherwise.  

They leave rubbish everywhere - cigarette packets, sandwich wrappers and silver paper or plastic, in the hedgerow, on the lawn, on the verge outside. 

They've killed many plants around the garden. 

They've destroyed a large section of hedgerow. 

They've left huge piles of claggy soil all round the garden, even though they've supposedly filled in the holes the mud came out of.

They've utterly trashed the car park, breaking up into small pieces many of the flag stones we park on...much of it is not driveable on now...

Oh, and we think they've destroyed the pipe that connects next door's sewage and storm drains to ours, and hence to the existing septic tank - they've effectively cut them off at the mains, and created a closed system next door which will soon be backing up. 

So, not a good day around our house...

But we're on the case, and hope to prevent further damage at least.

Watch this space...

:-(

Day 199 - Big Buggers

big bug

I got an early bonus picture, first thing this morning, when I came across this big fella lurking under my desk...

I can't quite ID him, some kind of Ground Beetle...perhaps Carabus problematicus?  He was certainly a big bugger, maybe an inch for his abdomen and another half an inch for thorax and head.

In the bottom middle of the photo, you can see a coarse black dog hair...I realise it's not brilliant as a scale reference, but it's all I have - I only got a couple of shots before he caught on to me and went running off behind the bin, never to be seen again.  

So far...he's still hiding under there somewhere, with the vole that Loz released under my desk on Sunday...never saw that again, after if went under the desk...that's going to be quite an operation, retrieving the body, if he dies under there somewhere.

Fingers crossed that both of them somehow find an escape route and get back out where they belong.

In the meantime, I'll keep my slippers on - just the other night, Anna was severely mauled by a marauding beetle (not Ringo), which bit her on the foot just because she nearly squished it to death ('scuse the technical jargon...). 

This one's a biggie though, he might have your leg off!

Speaking of biggies, I have it on good authority that "that big black crow thing" (one of the ravens) has been mugging the jackdaws that congregate in our gardens around the bird feeders early each morning. 

They make a lot of noise, apparently, but I sleep like the dead, so even though this is apparently going on 5m from our open bedroom window, I've not heard a thing. 

Still, I'll take the camera upstairs just in case I should happen to waken around dawn...he pins them to the ground and gives them a bit of a beating, so I've been told...

Ok, so it's far from a reliable source, but there would be no reason to just make up a story like that!

I heard the raven cronking in the tree just over the road, earlier this evening...he's got a much deeper cronk than in that recording - I reckon he's a big bugger even amongst his own kind...

Anyway, I thought I might get a better close up:

no big bugger

But I didn't...although I quite like the look of the tree that he's hiding in...it looks resplendent in the evening sunshine.

I didn't spot the raven at all, and Anna said it flew off whilst I was nattering to my neighbour Dave. 

Encouraging that he's around and about though...I'll keep my ears tuned for his distinctive deep rasp, see if I can't catch him bullying the jackdaws...

I do like him, but not if he's going to be mean!

:-/

STOP PRESS

By incredible coincidence, and entirely a propos of the subject of tonight's blog, Anna just called me upstairs to grab a photo of this amazing little (big!) beauty:

the queen hornet

She is a hornet, probably a queen, and was quite simply gigantic.  She does look a little like a male, but much bigger than any hornet I've ever seen...the window frame she's clinging to is around an inch wide...she was probably 1.5 inches in length or more.

Hornets are very docile creatures, so there was nothing to be afraid of.  She'd somehow found her way on to our landing and was stuck on the windowsill.  

After grabbing a few snaps, I ushered her out onto the ivy, where I hope she'll be ok. 

We'll know if she comes in the house anyway - their buzz is so low pitched, they're like a big, slow bomber plane, compared to the zippy little jet fighter planes that are wasps.   It's like a chinook just flew into the bedroom, when they occasionally find their way through an open bedroom window. 

They are several times the size of the common wasp, and they really have a drone to match...as soon as you hear it, you just know it's big.

She has fantastic big brown eyes:

brown eyed girl

What a rare, late treat that was!!

B-)